Wednesday, June 1, 2011

This shot was taken of the window at the New Hartford Senior Center. Someone had decorated the window sill for Memorial Day. It was really pretty. Hard to photograph without getting the cars in the parking lot below!

I'm going to do FLAGS for June because June 14th is Flag Day. So I like to make the last picture of the month and the first picture of the new month have something in them from both themes. Hence the flags in the window.

The "Official" Memorial Day. We spent the afternoon at nephew Taylor's house, had a virtual family reunion by videoconference (we are spread out from Bainbridge Island WA to England!), and enjoyed perfect weather.

On our way home, we drove through New Canaan CT where I had hoped to find some nice doors and windows. This house sits up above the sidewalk by a lot; stone steps lead up to the front walk from the sidewalk below. It was late afternoon, so the sun was coming through the flag from behind. There were five flags on this porch: a standard American flag, the "Betsy Ross" flag, the British flag, and two others, including this one. Don't know what it is exactly.

I also got an awesome picture from my friend Naomi. It was taken in Winchester Center, CT. Wish I'd taken this one too. I don't get away from my beaten paths enough to find cool places like this! Thank you, Naomi!!

I'm losing my touch with stained glass! I used to take beautiful pictures of stained glass windows, but today I just pointed my camera and clicked. I'll definitely go back and fiddle with the exposure so as to not get the blown-out light areas.

This is St. Agnes at Trinity Episcopal Church in Collinsville. She was a young virgin from a Christian family in late 3rd century Rome. A local prefect wanted her to marry his son, but she refused, and the prefect ordered her to be put to death. In those days, a virgin was not allowed to be executed (she was only 12 or 13), so the prefect dragged her to a brothel, but none of the men were able to deflower her. She was then ordered to be burned but would not burn; eventually she was killed by the sword.

She is the patron saint of gardeners (hence the flowers) and is always depicted with a palm frond (a symbol of martyrdom) and either holding a lamb or with a lamb at her feet. The lamb (Agnus in Latin) is part of her iconography because the word is so close to Agnes.

An errand today took me to O&G in Torrington, and I looked everywhere along the way for an interesting door or window. Nothing much got my attention until I was facing this factory on Pearl St. While you'd think the place was vacant, with this much ivy obscuring the windows, there appeared to be an open garage bay and activity.

And I have another guest photographer, Nikki Deupree of Suffield. This picture makes me want to just throw all mine away! She told me where it was taken, but I don't remember. But isn't it just the BEST picture??? I wish I'd taken it! Muchas gracias, Nikki!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

I got a huge amount of work done on the computer until 4 a.m. this morning, so I really didn't do much of anything all day. Waiting for news on Caleb's surgery kept me close to home. He came through it well, and I spent the day going through magazines before they get recycled. Tired!!

Mocha had her second training lesson, so I did manage to get out of the house, and this picture was taken in New Hartford at the big Ovation Guitar Co. factory. After so much grayness and rain, it was great to have sun for pictures!

Tuesdays are yoga-pilates and senior center fitness classes, and I sure need it after a week of standing in the studio, a weekend of craft show, and a week of eating and not exercising. I feel so sluggish!

Before getting the mail, I walked along "downtown" Main Street looking for nice doors and/or windows on some of the older houses and buildings. I like this one, even though the building is not particularly old or interesting. Just nice geometry.

Home again and feeling like I'll never get caught up. But I had the last of my appliqué classes at the Fabric Bug in Thomaston this afternoon. I have learned a lot and have improved dramatically. It's slow work, though.

The picture is of a factory (?) window on the same back street in Thomaston where the quilt shop is.

Just to throw a wrench into the works, Mocha woke up looking lethargic and sick, so we rushed her off to the vet's at 8 a.m. (Turns out she was fine, just super groggy I guess). But it did give me a chance to get out of the house, and I was able to take a picture of an abandonned house on lower Main Street in New Hartford. It is still overcast, so the grayness and dismalness of the day contributes to the dismalness of this house.

I was completely uninspired today. Still feeling let down about the contest, busy around the house. But I did go out to the sewing circle (The Knit Wits) in the evening, and on the way home, pulled into the Stop 'n' Shop mall to look for storefronts at night. Not much happening in Winsted at 9:30 pm, but Sophie's Pizza was open and nearly empty. It looks as sad as I feel.

Andrew sent a second picture taken of the Hayden Planetarium in New York on a recent visit. Much more upbeat, uplifting!!

Disappointed in not winning the contest yesterday, but life marches on. Today is Andrew's birthday, so we motored down to Port Chester for dinner at Centro in Greenwich. Always great food!! And different windows and doors for my camera!

This one is on a building at the corner of Riverdale Ave. in Port Chester -- it is a little car dealership and garage for working on cars. Don't know for sure what goes on in the building itself because the windows are all these glass bricks.

Andrew contributed a picture for the blog that he took of school bus doors and windows. Great picture!! Thank you, Andrew.

Contest Day in Springfield. Hundreds of women teasing hair, applying false eyelashes, humming and bubbling, and trying to keep the nerves under control. This is the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield, which has a big triangular open space up through the middle.

First day of the Sweet Adelines Regional competition!! Too frantic to think about pictures, but took the photo below. This is the window in our carport as I was leaving for Springfield, looking out at a blooming crabapple tree -- bright pink in the middle of the white and gray frame.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I didn't get out today all day, but we went out for dinner at the Cambridge Brew Pub in Granby. All the way there, I looked for potential pictures and found nothing. When we got to the Brew Pub, I noticed a large room in the front of the building. The door into the room was bordered with Christmas lights, and there were rows of beer bottles in the upper windows. The room is their brewery -- huge stainless steel tanks, pipes, dials.

I had to take two photos of the windows with the beer bottles. It goes the entire width of the building.

It was overcast today, but the sun kept trying to come out. I was working all day in the studio, and when the sky brightened, I grabbed my camera and headed out to find something along Main Street. I no sooner got outside when it clouded up again.

The picture is of the door stoop of the house next door which is called (by a sign on the front) "Old Footsteps" and dates from 1804.

Monday, May 9, 2011

A beautiful day, and finally almost spring-like in warmth. An applique class took me to Thomaston, and I decided to come home up Torrington's South Main Street. There are a lot of auto body shops and old factories along there, so I was hoping for some good windows. Instead I found these doors on an abandonned building next to Iffland Lumber.

Turns out Morrow had photographed the exact same door in February when there was snow ont he ground. I'm glad we are in some of the same spaces photographically -- I can only dream of being as good!

Mother's Day, and a surprise visit from Andrew. The best kind of surprise!! Wasn't thinking about Picture-a-Day until after early dinner at Max-a-Mia in Avon. Asked Morrow to stop for some good doors or windows on our way home, and he pulled into the Junk Shop on Route 44 in Canton, one of his favorite places to take pictures. He does know what he's doing!

Kentucky Derby Day and my grandfather's birthday (1885). I had to run into Torrington and had to stop by my favorite glass cube building, the Torrington Office Plaza on East Main St. The clouds had been spectacular all afternoon, but by the time I got there, the sky had gone white overhead, leaving blue only to the north. So I got the north side of the building with reflected blue (and a little Photoshopping to saturate it a bit).

It counts (as "doors and windows") if the entire building is windows, doesn't it?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Today would have been my mother's 95th birthday. I always thought she would be around to celebrate it, and many more besides.

One of my favorite local doors is the one directly across the street from us, at 590 Main St. I have photographed this door in previous years. I think what I like best at this time of year are the iris, which have just bloomed. The wind was up (for the flag), and the late afternoon sun was at its late-afternoon best soft light.

It rained all day. There are some doors around town that would look really great on a rainy day -- peeling paint, sadly in need of sprucing up. But instead, I took a picture of the most beautiful house in New Hartford. The rain didn't hurt the picture a bit, although the colors are a bit dreary on a dreary day.

This house is on Route 44 right next to the New Hartford green which is in front of St. John's Episcopal Church and is the scene of the weekly farmer's market in the summer.

Just so you can see the whole house that this front door is part of, here it is:

Continued to plug away and cleaning the studio all day, and I knew that mostly likely the only doors and windows I'd see today would be our own. So I photographed my favorite window, the one over the kitchen sink, when the sun was pouring in. The silver pepper grinder on the right was one of my mother's, bought in Arizona. It has Indian designs on it. It's on the windowsill because a screw fell out, and it needs to be repaired before I can use it.

Monday, busy all day trying to get my art space clean, and I ended up not getting the job done. I also didn't think about going out for a picture. But as luck would have it, I went out to the weekly sewing circle group that meets in the evening at Barnes & Noble, and when I got home, I realized how much I love our own back door with the permanent Christmas lights.

Picture-A-Day is back. I just couldn't take the endless northern Connecticut winter, so I never finished January and never even started February, March or April.

The theme for the month of May is DOORS AND WINDOWS, and I hope to concentrate on the ones close to home.

Today's picture was from my church, Trinity Episcopal in Collinsville, CT. This window is in the "new" building, in what I think is called the narthex (great word, isn't it?), the room outside of the doors into the church. It is the season of Easter.

Right above this bank of windows, the roof/ceiling comes to a point, and there is a little triangular window which I also had to photograph.

I had some really welcome participation from friends and family when I did the Holiday Picture-A-Day last December. I invite anyone to send me photos of windows and/or doors, and I will add them to my daily blog.